Fighter Patrol Against planes

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    • Fighter Patrol Against planes

      I have been playing this game since June and have been loving it so far. I have just won my first game because of tactical bombers and I think I am pretty good at using them. BUT there is has always been something that confused me, patrolling. I have tried to use patrols of fighters to prevent tacs from obliterating every ground unit underneath. But usually, the patrol does not even touch the enemy tac bombers and my ground troops suffer as a result. It has gotten to the point where I myself send planes straight through enemy patrols because I know they won't do anything to them. Is this a bug or am I just not noticing something?

    • What you described is exactly the opposite result of what I get when I place a couple of patrolling 5-squadron fighter wings over my ground units ---- attacking tactical bombers get mauled, especially if they are unescorted.

      Please describe, in detail, exactly what you are doing, and what the results are.

    • So I have say, 5 bombers stationed and ready to fight when I see some light tanks on their way to one of my provinces and a patrol of fighters guarding them. So naturally I send my bombers straight into the fray and bomb the crap out of those light tanks and my tac take almost no damage.

      There was another instance where I was at peace with this one person (player a) but I was using an airbase owned by someone who was at war with player a. Player a had a patrol of fighters right above the airbase my planes were at. So I bombed player a's tanks a bit further away and when my planes went back from their bombing run and straight into the patrol of 5 fighters, they take no damage. I only had 3 bombers.

    • The enemy fighters were using the patrol function, i.e., there was defined circle showing the enemy fighter wing's patrol radius, and the enemy light tank formation was underneath the fighters' patrol radius when you attacked the enemy light tanks? Are you SURE the light tanks were under the fighters' patrol radius?

      What tech level were the enemy fighters? How many squadrons were in the enemy's defending fighter wing? What level were your tactical bombers? How many squadrons were in your attacking bomber wing? Did you use direct attack or the patrol function in attacking the enemy light tank formation? Did your bomber wing include escorting fighter squadrons?

    • Yes the enemy fighters were using the patrol function and yes the tanks were underneath them.

      The enemy fighters were lvl 3 I'm pretty sure, and my bombers were lvl 3 swell. I used direct attack against the tanks with 3 bombers against 5 fighters that were patrolling them. I had no escort whatsoever.

    • Okay, so your THREE L3 tactical bomber squadrons in a single wing attacked a stack of enemy light tanks, which were protected by FIVE L3 fighters squadrons patrolling above the light tanks . . . what was the result? How much damage was suffered by the bombers, fighters and tanks?

      Also, merely passing through a fighter wing's patrol radius will not necessarily inflict damage on the bombers unless they attack something within the fighters' radius. The aircraft patrol function is based on a 15-minute ticker, whereby damage is inflicted on enemy units within the patrol radius every 15 minutes.

    • Tanks suffered average losses. Maybe 15% or something along those lines. It seems that it could be the fact that the ticker could have not gone off. Maybe I attacked before the first 15 minutes ended?

      But it seems you have answered why my patrols aren't working. It seems like I have been using fighter patrols wrong.I thought that all the bombers have to do is pass the circle to receive damage but apparently not.

      Thx for the quick replies btw. I am ready to kick all those 22 stack tac bombers with this new knowledge.

    • maje205 wrote:

      Thx for the quick replies btw. I am ready to kick all those 22 stack tac bombers with this new knowledge.
      BTW, if the enemy ground units are unprotected by fighter patrol or significant AA on the ground, your TBs will inflict more damage if you attack in wings of 5 squadrons each. The SBDE max for all aircraft is 5 squadrons; if you're unfamiliar with the game dynamic of State-Based Damage Efficiency, you should read up. There are several good threads in the forum.

      My favorite tactic is to fly my Big Wing of 20+ TB squadrons to their target on patrol, and then peel them off 5 at a time for direct attacks. Can be devastating against armor units, which typically have lousy AA values. It's almost a free hit when armor moves alone without AA or other units.

    • Yep that's why I use only 5 bombers or fighters at a time. I was talking about those players with 24 tac bombers in one stack that always happens in these games. I am always frustrated that SBDE isn't able to nerf the tac bombers enough to stop them from obliterating something in the first attack.

    • MontanaBB wrote:

      My favorite tactic is to fly my Big Wing of 20+ TB squadrons to their target on patrol, and then peel them off 5 at a time for direct attacks. Can be devastating against armor units, which typically have lousy AA values. It's almost a free hit when armor moves alone without AA or other units.
      That's actually a good idea. May use that in the future.

      But as of now I am trying to use "useless" units like the armoured car and the strategic bomber to find uses for them. So far my progress has been lazy. (Armoured cars lose against fighter what??!! :wallbash )

    • Try putting two or three 5-squadron fighter wings over your ground units when that 25-squadron TB wing attacks your ground-pounders. Your fighters will be at maximum SBDE efficiency, and the attacking TBs will not. Moreover, in air-to-air combat, defending fighters are approximately 5x stronger than attacking TBs.

    • MontanaBB wrote:

      putting two or three 5-squadron fighter wings over your ground units when that 25-squadron TB wing attacks your ground-pounders. Your fighters will be at maximum SBDE efficiency, and the attacking TBs will not. Moreover, in air-to-air combat, defending fighters are approximately 5x stronger than attacking TBs
      Seems like a plan.

      Most of my games are either in early game (not that many planes) or I am fighting no-brain artillery-mains so I don't really have that many people to practice this on. But I know it will definitely happen soon lol.

    • maje205 wrote:

      But as of now I am trying to use "useless" units like the armoured car and the strategic bomber to find uses for them. So far my progress has been lazy.
      Armored car units are very fast, and have the largest reconnaissance radius of any ground unit. They are usually worthless for combat, especially on their own, although they do okay the first several days of a new game when supported by your infantry and before light tanks are available.

      A large wing of higher level strategic bombers can be absolutely devastating against the unprotected infrastructure and/or industrial complexes of your enemies. Personally, I prefer to capture my enemies' improvements as intact as possible, so I don't use strats much, but they have a role to play. Also, with the recent range buffs, the L6 strat has a range of something like 1,000 km, which means they make a superb long-range reconnaissance plane, and they can now out-range L4 rockets and nuclear missiles -- which can be an advantage.

    • Also a group of 5 strat bombers included with 5 interceptors and 5 tactical bombers is fairly effective for absorbing damage and minimizing losses.
      War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin keep out of the way til you can. - Winston Churchill



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    • MontanaBB wrote:

      Also, with the recent range buffs, the L6 strat has a range of something like a 1,000 km, which means they make a superb long-range reconnaissance plane, and they can now out-range L4 rockets and nuclear missiles -- which can be an advantage.
      That's actually pretty interesting. I have only been attacked with rockets once and there wasn't really anything there so I haven't really felt its effects. The games I join are usually over before the rocket-everywhere part of the game so I have no experience against rockets or nuclear anything.

    • Be aware that there is a peculiar species of player that lives to spam rockets en masse, and then drop dozens of them on your air bases or attacking ground units. Recent changes make that a more expensive strategy, but these players are still out there.

      Also be aware that rockets can be very effective against aircraft units when they are grounded and refueling. All aircraft squadrons are reduced to 5 hit points each when they are refueling (from 20 to 30 hit points otherwise), which makes them very vulnerable to rocket attacks or air strikes.

    • They're still aircraft class when refueling, so attacking refueling aircraft units with fighters is best. But since their hit points are reduced by 75% for fighters (20 to 5 hit points) and 80% for TBs (25 to 5 hit points), give'em a good whack with whatever you have. That's the time to crush your enemy's big tactical bomber wing if you can.